Book review: Vampire Academy

Summary

Rose Hathaway is Dhampir, which makes her a half-vampire guardian of Moroi (the good vampires) against Strigoi (the bad vampires). She has dedicated her whole life to protect her best-friend, Lissa Dragomir, who is a royal Moroi.

After years of fleeing, Rose and Lissa are taken back to their Vampire Academy by Dimitri Belikov, a guardian and a teacher at the institute.

Rose now must keep up with all the training she has lost, while worrying that the very thing she and Lissa were running from might come back for Lissa. Oh, and she can’t really deny the fact that she is also hot for teacher. 

Review

“Vampire Academy” was a book that hooked me from the first page — okay, I must admit that the fact that it was about supernatural creatures helped and made my opinion slightly biased, but I’ve read fantasy books where every page was torture. And although the Twilight saga was the reason I discovered Vampire Academy, these books were what prompted me to write about vampires and other creatures.

The trick?

The trick, like in any successful book, is in the characters. In creating a network of fictional characters that lead readers to believe these characters are real and by making us fear for their fates. Bella Swan may be a character who can do anything for love, but when it comes to personality, she leaves a lot of things unchecked.

Rose Hathaway on the contrary is a sarcastic, impulsive, bold character and, above all, not only cares about the love of her life but also about her friends. She doesn’t put the existence of one aside for the sake of the other.

This heroine is not the kind of person who gets left behind while she waits for everyone else to fight for her. She is the first to jump in the front line of a battle. A heroine, who yes like all girls her age has thoughts of popularity, boys, and sex, but does not let these topics be the centre of her world. And finally, a heroine who like so many of us has her moments of doubt and fear.

This is the kind of character that can inspire many girls, and teach them that yes, it is possible to be beautiful and still learn to be independent.

But what impressed me most about Richelle Mead’s writing was the veracity of her mythology. It is a fictional book but based on true Romanian folklore, which shows Mead’s research before writing. I love research and I love mythology, and I love that Mead created credible creatures based on it.

The movie

As soon as I read this book I quickly longed for its movie adaptation. And when I found out that my dreams were finally going to come true (it was a long three-year wait), I couldn’t believe that my roommate got us free tickets to see the preview of the movie (I just had to make him read them, they’re so good ). I was going to see the movie of one of my favourite books two months before everyone else!

Two hours later I left the cinema disappointed.

The movie looked like a parody of the book. Yes, I have to admit that the directors tried to recreate the sarcastic side of Rose. But it was so exaggerated. They put humor in situations where it shouldn’t exist. Did I laugh at the movie? I did! But Vampire Academy is a book about love, duty, and friendship. Rose is a character who can laugh at herself but she can take things seriously. I felt so disappointed that they couldn’t balance the more serious undertone of the book and its humour in a convincing way.

So if you only saw the movie and think the book is not worth it, think again. You should definitely read this book if you love urban fantasy.

What other movie adaptations left you disappointed?